Backcountry.com donation keeps Utah Avalanche Center open

Online retailer makes it possible for UAC to keep operating through the end of April.

Backcountry.com Donation Keeps the Utah Avalanche Center Open Through April$6,300 to the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center extends forecasting and avalanche advisories.04.11.2011– PARK CITY, Utah – On April 3, the Utah Avalanche Center (UAC) announced that it had reached the end of its funding and it would be closing for the season. The problem is, with deep late-season snowpack, the backcountry itself is still open for business. Without their expert information on current avalanche and weather conditions, thousands of backcountry users in Utah face a higher risk of accident, injury or even death due to unstable snow conditions and avalanche. To Park City-based online outdoor retailer Backcountry.com that fact was hard to swallow, so the company stepped in with a solution.

Today, Backcountry.com will donate $6,300 to non-profit Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center (FUAC) to restore and extend backcountry avalanche forecasting through April 24. Backcountry skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers can breathe a sigh of relief.

“There’s too much snow in the Wasatch and there are too many people still in the backcountry. We need the UAC,” said Dustin Roberston, Chief Marketing Officer at Backcountry.com. “We made a call to find out what it would take to get them to stay open. It was within our power to make it happen, so we’re going to make it happen.”